Chapter 4~~~ Latent talent
Razakiel's POV
"Yes, I want your help." She says, her eyes refusing to meeting my own, "Now let me go." A grin makes its way across my face; that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Now I just have to get us out of here, hand her over to the angels and finally get back home.
"Well, good. Let's get out of here then." I say, taking a step back, so our bodies are no longer in contact with one another.
"That's it? What we just fly out of here and we're free?" The disbelief is evident in the depths of her bright blue eyes, and I have to fight the urge to laugh at her confusion; I don't think she would take it very well considering she was trying to kill me a minute ago.
"Of course, we can't just fly out of here. Lucifer tracks all the flights into and out of hell. Why do you think nobody has escaped yet? Well, successfully escaped anyway." Confusion still flitting through her wary gaze, she looks up at me in question.
"So…. how do we get out then?"
"Well, actually we do just fly out. Getting out of here is the easy part., it's the not getting caught and staying out part that is difficult. Which means we have to be very specific about where exactly we fly to, both God and Lucifer can track where we are at all times."
"Then how are we supposed to…" I raise my hand to cut her off mid-sentence, barely restraining the sigh of exasperation trying to escape my lips, if she could just listen to what I am saying.
"Would you just listen! I am about to explain!" I pause, looking down at her, and waiting for a response. After a minute she gives a slight nod of her head and shifts her gaze as she is looking over my shoulder rather than at my face, "So, Lucifer can track the movements of both the fallen and demons at all times. He does so through our minds. Which means he actually cannot track shields unless they are actually shielding him at the time.
"So, we just fly out of here and you shield us both from him?" A brief chuckle escapes my lips.
"I wish it was that easy. Sadly, no. He would still be able to track your mind if I was shielding it, he just wouldn't be able to see your thoughts. You actually need to be shielding yourself the entire time."
"I am not a shield, you know I am not a shield, so why would you think this would work? Are you messing with me? You actually still intend on taking me back to Lucifer, don't you?" A sigh of exasperation leaves my lips as I realize that she is back to doubting me, again. Why is it so difficult to believe that I am not on the devil's side?
"Look, Luc, I am not going to hand you over to him. What would be the point? Apparently, you have the ability to cause the downfall of heaven, and personally, I would like to return to heaven not see it destroyed. Just trust me."
"I don't know, maybe I shouldn't trust you. Your plan doesn't even make sense. And if all you need to get out of here is to be a shield, why haven't you left on your own before now? Why bother helping me?"
"Well, there are two reasons for that. The first is exactly what I said before; I don't want the devil to destroy heaven and since you are the key to his plans, I need to get you out of here. The second is that to avoid being located by Lucifer or any of his readers we both need to have reinforce shielding; a shielded shield, so to speak. So, we both have to be shielding ourselves and so as well as each other all the times. I've been experimenting with it since I first got dragged down here and that is the only thing that can stop a reader from locating the mind of another angel."
"That still doesn't tell me how I'm supposed to suddenly become a shield!" My eyes shift around us nervously as her voice rises, so I can stop them hearing our thoughts but that doesn't mean that they can't hear our voices.
"Keep, your voice down." I murmur firmly, but quietly to reinforce my statement. I can almost see her heckles rising at the commanding note in my voice and for a second, I think she might ignore my warning. Then the sense behind it settles over her and she nods without a sound.
"Sorry, but explain how you intend to making this work." She says after a moment of eerie silence.
"Well Lucifer claims that you, as half human, half angel, are more powerful than any other angel alone. Yes?" She dips her head in acknowledgment, through her eyes show me she is still trying to work out on how this relates to her becoming a shield. "I have a theory, that since you're supposed to be more powerful than all of us, you must at least have some of the extrasensory traits that some angels develop. Have you ever even been tested?" The shocked expression she gives me, answers my question before she can even open her mouth.
"No. I thought it was automatic, that you knew if you were a shield or not."
"In some cases, yes, but most of the time, the trait is latent, someone actually has to go in and activate it, and then you still have to be trained on how to use it."
"What if I don't have it at all? Then what do we do?"
"Then will just have to make, do with me and keep moving, we'll just stay in highly populated areas, where it is more difficult for them to get a read on us. Do you want me to check now or…?" for as second, I think I see fear flit across her gaze, but than a wall closes over and I am left starring at emotionless blue void.
"Yes. Do it now. The sooner we know the sooner we can leave and get this over with."
I wait for her to ask how I'm going to go about finding her latent talent and activating it but she remains silent, starring at a point behind my shoulder, avoiding my voice and waiting for me to begin.
"Close your eyes." I murmur as I take a step closer to her, when she unconsciously takes an automatic step back, a smirk makes its way onto my face; she is still afraid of me, despite her best efforts to hides it. Her back is now pressed against the wall again, a steely glint in her eye daring me to come closer. My grin widens as I take my next step and see her defenses drop for a moment. She doesn't like having me this close.
"You're going to have to let me near you, if you want me to do this you know."
"Why can't you do this from back there? You can shield me from back there; surely you can search me from back there." A short chuckle escapes me; even if that was true, I wouldn't tell her, simply because her reaction to this situation was too entertaining to miss. Luckily for me it was entirely necessary for me to be in close contact with her in order for this to work.
"We have to be in physical contact for me to be able to get inside your head and search you, it's different to simply reading you, the closer the contact the easier it is." Taking the final step, my body is barely centimeters away from hers, I lift my hands and place them on her shoulders. Noticing as I do that her breathing hitches slightly at each touch. Leaning in slowly, so as not to startle her and earn a knife in my chest, I gently place my forehead against hers. She freezes as I get closer, then closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as I make contact with her skin. She is not obviously comfortable with physical contact, three guesses as to why. Torture will generally do that to you.
"Relax, Luc. I'm not going to hurt you. Breath." For a moment, she remains frozen before me and not moving an inch. "Luc, Breath." I whisper, gently, once more. She sighs, breath mingling with mine and her tense frame finally relaxes slightly against me.
I close my, leaning in her relaxed body to keep us both upright. I let my mind wonder towards hers. Ignoring the war waging inside her head as he struggles to maintain her calm and relaxed posture with me so close to her. Weaving my way through her fears, her dreams, her memories; trying not to see the horrific scenes she obviously pushes to the furthest, darkest recess of her mind. I'm starting to think, what Lucifer put her through was worse than I could ever imagine, and way more terrible than she lets on. But dragging repressed memories to the surface will only cause her more pain right now and I can't afford to let her loose trust in me, continue on searching for that small area in the mind that glimmers like a soup bubble in the sun. the areas that contain her abilities.
As I move further into the depths of her mind, I find barriers, built up like a monumental wall around the very thing I was trying to access; someone didn't want her finding out her discovering her abilities on her own. And without them she isn't able to access this part of her mind to remove the barrier. Lucifer must have blocked her from them, so that he could activate them when he had her fully under his control and was ready to put his plan into action. But since he was the only one who knew she hadn't been tested at the time he created the barrier; it isn't strong enough to prevent me from removing it. Nor is it designed to only allow him to remove it.
Moving back to myself I open my eyes and look at Luc as she stands before me, forcing herself to remain calm despite her desperation to get away. I'm about to make this much more difficult.
"Luc," I whisper in her ear. She nods in response, her eyes still closed. "I have to remove something that Lucifer put in there to stop you from developing these abilities on your own." Her eyes snap open instantly.
"He put something in my head? How could he put something in my head without me knowing?"
"Hey, it okay, I can get it out. He probably did it when you were unconscious so you wouldn't notice what was happening, once it's there you wouldn't have been able to access it because it's designed to prevent access."
"get rid of it. Now."
"Luc. The thing is, when I remove it, it might hurt, a bit. I don't know how bad it will be exactly, it varies with each individual, sometimes it's bad."
"I don't care Zak." She almost snarls the last word, "Just get it out."
"Okay. Just do the same as you did before. I'll try to be as gentle as possible." She closes her eyes moments before mine follow suit. I silently beg for her forgiveness as I re-enter her mind and find the barrier preventing me from granting her access to her to her own potential.
I slowly begin tearing the barrier apart, piece to piece; trying to only touch the foreign material. With each piece I remove I feel her body flinch against mine, but she refuses to make a sound. Slowly I tear the structure to pieces; pieces that dissolve readily the moment they are no longer part of the whole. The last piece sits before me, daring me to remove it, daring me to release what lies behind. I lift it slowly from its position, Luc jerks against me, a whimper finally breaking free of her lips. As this final piece slowly disappears from its position before me, a shock jolts through her body. A shrill cry pierces my ears and her body slumps, limply, against my own.